All of us together create the life of our community; that includes you.  We have no paid staff or clergy.  We each have unique gifts, leadings, and resources.  What we individually choose to share and participate in ultimately defines our community.  The results are numerous and varied.  They reflect how successful we are at living out our faith with each other and in the world.  This section of the site offers a glimpse of that life together.

• Our Community
• Monthly meetings for worship with a concern for business (or “business meetings” for short). All are warmly encouraged to participate in these meetings, which have the ultimate responsibility for ordering the life and work of the Meeting. Ideally, the meeting for business is a shared spiritual effort to discern God’s will and divine guidance for the collective work of the Meeting. Decisions are made only when all present reach unity on what we are called to do.  Access to the full minutes of these meetings are available on request.  Notable minutes are posted on this site, including:
• Minutes relating to Meeting processes and policies, including, but not limited to:
• Finance
• Policy on Expenditures (7/2005)
• Guidelines on Scholarships (2/2011)
• Budget Process for Financial Support of Attendance at Quaker and Other Spiritually Nurturing Events (9/2006)
• Minute on Personal Assistance Fund (3/2010)
• Report on Investing our Funds, 2001
• Items relating to Becoming a Monthly Meeting
• Instructions for Opening and Closing (rotates among committees)
• Minutes that express or act on particular concerns in our society, including, but not limited to:
• Marriage equality
• Peace
• Meetings for Listening (also called “threshing sessions”) may be called when we have particularly deep or difficult issues to address.  Our experience has shown that the deep and respectful listening we do in these meetings helps us find a basis for unity and moving forward.  To help facilitate that listening, no decisions are made at these meetings, but the listening we do helps inform discussions in our business meetings.
• On this site, we post reports on these meetings for listening.
• We have often also had these meetings in preparation for our Spiritual State of the Meeting Reports. (There are no separate reports on such meetings.)
• For more information on the process of meetings for listening, see our Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice (draft), p. 43.
• Committees offer many opportunities for fellowship, growth, and participation in the life of the Meeting, according to our gifts, leadings, and interests.
• Caring for Each Other (under construction)

• Our Witness
• Prison Ministry – South Mountain Friends Fellowship at Maryland Correctional Institute-Hagerstown is a Worship Group under our care.
• People Acting Together in Howard (PATH) – Patapsco participates in this interfaith network of active communities in Howard County, which is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).  Like all IAF affiliates, PATH takes responsibility for solving the problems in its own community and works to renew the interest of citizens in public life.
• Cooking for Peace – One of our members has had a leading to offer occasional workshops in preparing vegan food.  Proceeds from these workshops have been donated to various causes including the Grassroots Day Resource Center.  Keep an eye on our event blog posts for when the next one is scheduled.
• Minutes that express or act on particular concerns in our society are part of our witness.

• Our Events, such as our occasional adult discussion groups or annual retreats.  See our blog posts announcing these events.  Also see our calendar.

• Our News, including our reports in the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Interchange newsletter and our annual Spiritual State of the Meeting reports.

• Our Journal – provides a forum for sharing our spiritual journeys, helping us to learn more about each other and to think about who we are and how we live out our faith.